


road not taken

by 4419s



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - School, Enemies to Lovers, M/M, aka hyunjin with a lipring, aka these two's best looks, art student!jisung, chan just knows everyone, delinquent!hyunjin, ish, like changbin is older than minho etc, the ages are all messed up, this came from me thinking about 181116 jisung, which then spurred on a conversation about 181011 hyunjin, woojin seungmin and jeongin will only really appear occasionally sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-11 07:35:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20542445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4419s/pseuds/4419s
Summary: jisung finds himself questioning if theres more to life than just paintinspiration from 181116 jisung + 181011 hyunjin





	1. Chapter 1

Jisung sighed as he angrily erased yet _another _wrong marking made to his sketch. He just couldn’t seem to get the proportion of his nose right.  
Ordinarily, Jisung was a portrait artist. Give him anyone at all, name any name, Jisung could sketch them, paint them in any medium you desired… except when it came to his own face.  
As soon as the teacher had even merely mentioned the fact that this week was going to be all about themselves, the aforementioned art student groaned internally.

“Hey, Lix? I’m gonna grab a drink, this is doing my nut in,” Jisung sighed as he got up from his desk and pushed his rounded glasses up the bridge of his nose, “do you want anything?”  
Felix looked up from his sketchbook and said a small ‘no thank you’ with a shining smile, before going back to his own portrait. 

Jisung made sure to silently bless the gods that his art teacher was so lenient with leaving the classroom for breaks, something about ‘all artists need their creative freedom’ and made his way to the canteen to grab himself a ‘well-deserved’ coffee. Well, _he_ thought it was well-deserved at least.

At the same time, a leather jacket-clad boy peacefully (maybe that wasn’t the correct word to use, but he felt it at least) made his way down the corridor, happily allowing his fist to bang every other locker as he walked past, the racket coming across as jarring to everyone but himself. A silver ring pinned loosely through the left side of his bottom lip.  
  


It didn’t take long for Jisung to acquire his coffee and pay, body turning to head back towards his class — albeit as slowly as he could without standing still. With his eyes glued to his phone as he scanned over a few assignments for other classes, he sipped at the hot beverage, the last thing on his mind was his surroundings.  
The noisy troublemaker was in a similar predicament, eyes narrowed down at his untied shoe laces as he walked, a rather violent mental debate keeping his mind occupied as he tried to decide between stopping to tie it or just letting it be.  
The two of them were too caught up in their own thoughts. _Far_ too caught up to anticipate the cup of coffee flying as their bodies collided; its contents spilling out between them — successfully painting both boys’ clothing with the boiling hot liquid. This was followed by a yelp and a jump back from Jisung, as the darkly dressed male simply stood still — perhaps in shock, perhaps still debating whether he should tie his lace or not. 

“Don’t you watch where you’re walking?” Jisung says, anger riding his tone, as the other raises his eyes and stares in confusion.  
“I don’t know if your eyes are deceiving you, but this isn’t a small corridor. Are you gonna be a hypocrite or are you just gonna move on and forget this happened?” He smirked, carrying on in his path, Jisung standing speechless. A rarity.  
He rolled his eyes, glancing down at the mess. In all honesty, he was more upset at his sudden lack of warm caffeinated beverage rather than the splurge of liquid sinking into the fabric of his clothing.

Jisung stomped back to the art room; anyone around him would compare the sight to a toddler throwing a tantrum, with him wearing oversized dungarees making it even more valid. He shot the stained cup into the bin and dramatically threw himself back down in his seat.  
Felix looked up, “I thought you were getting a coffee?” Jisung motioned down with his chin at the stain starting at the front of his overalls, leading down onto the legs. Felix, quickly noticing the scowl on Jisung’s face, thought it better not to ask. “Hey, Chan’s picking me up after class and I’m sure he’ll give you a lift home? Your clothes must be uncomfortable.”  
“And watch you two be all lovey-dovey? You must be joking, no thanks.” The freckled boy looked down; clearly hurt by the spiteful outburst.  
Jisung spoke, quickly realising how out of order that was, “Wait! Sorry Lix, that was totally uncalled for, I’m sorry. I’m just in a bad mood, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. I think I’m gonna stay back for a bit and try to work on whatever _this_,” he let out a short laugh, pointing to his work, in an attempt to brighten the mood, “is. Tell Chan thanks for the offer, though?”  
He placed his hand on Felix’s back, hoping his apology was accepted. Felix returned a smile, just as the bell rang out. Starting to pack up his things, “Don’t work too hard, though. You’ll end up overworking the piece and hating it even more like you always do.” Felix laughs, his words followed by a ‘see you later’ before he left the room along with the other students. 

True to his word, Jisung stayed back and tried his best to rectify his ‘failure’ of a self-portrait. His teacher kept coming over, giving him encouragement until it got to the time that they wanted to go home. “Leave it for the night and look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow, Ji. You know that’s always best.” They smiled sympathetically and picked up their bag. Jisung, quickly getting the hint, proceeded to stand up from his desk, lean back and crack his spine (mentally hearing his Mother’s whines about his poor posture) and too picked up his bag, knowing that he could leave his artwork where it was sat. When he left the room and prepared to set off on the chilly autumn walk home, he noticed a moody figure, of who he would assume was male, stood in front of the art display that was opposite of the art room; Jisung’s painting displayed proudly in the middle. Shocking him, his phone let out an abrupt chime, notifying a text and pulled it out from his dungarees’ front pocket.

**From: Lix ☀️ **

_hey ji just checking ur okay and that ur actually going home and not camping out at school lmao_

__

Jisung looked back up briefly with a smile, for it to falter when he saw the figure from before was no longer there and after looking back down the corridor, he could just catch a glimpse of them before they turned the corner. A familiar leather jacket and scuffed doc martens gracing their body, and a glint of silver.  
An exasperated sigh left his lips, but he shook the strange feeling off and carried on his way, heading outside. Taking this path let him see said male as he sped off on an equally black-clad motorbike, which paintwork seemed to match the rustic-vibe of the rider’s clothing. Jisung felt as though the gods were playing a cruel joke on him; not allowing him to know who was checking his work out so fondly. As he started the walk down the oh-so familiar road, he typed out a short response to his friend.

**To: Lix ☀️   
**

_yeah yeah im omw home now, dw!_


	2. Chapter 2

Hyunjin yawned as he trudged through the school yard, pulling his phone out of his back pocket; the screen cracked and the edges battered. He could just about see the time through the shattered glass; 9:08.

**From: lino** 😸

jin,,, ur gonna get slaughtered if u dont get ur ass to class in the next 30 seconds

Hyunjin just let out a short snort of laughter as he continued his slow meander. Geography was his least favourite subject and no amount of ‘threatening’ texts from Minho were going to get him to speed up.  
Making his way through the back entrance of the school as to avoid any unnecessary comments about his attendance from the office staff, Hyunjin made his way to the classroom and took extra care with his detour.  
  
Art fascinated Hyunjin. The sheer amount of effort and _passion_ that went into every single detail. The boy desperately wished he had even a small percentage of the talent that it took to create these masterpieces.  
Sitting in the centre of one of the bigger art displays; the one that hung on the wall directly opposite the main art room was a portrait. Hyunjin could stare at it for days. Every time he tried to walk past, it caught his attention. Every time he looked at it, he managed to find something new about it; something new that made him love it even more. The colours, the shading, the _brushstrokes_; Hyunjin could only imagine that the artist was just as beautiful as the painting itself.

Managing to pull himself away, he finally walked in the direction of his classroom.   
Ignoring his teacher’s raised voice and stern tone when he walked through the door he simply nodded and smirked at the ‘Hwang Hyunjin, stay behind after class’ and slumped down next to Minho at the back of the class.   
“Well, good afternoon to you too,” Minho said bluntly, but wasn’t able to keep a straight face and burst into hushed laughter when Hyunjin just raised his eyebrows at him.   
“Hey, I’m only 20 minutes late, right? Not that I care, but what did I miss so I can bullshit Mr. Kim after class.”

Hyunjin’s day continued to be pretty uneventful. Lecture after lecture from his teachers even though most of them had now ceased to give him detentions anymore because they knew they did nothing to help.   
  
Lunch dragged.   
Minho went to meet  Changbin for the hour which he insisted ‘was  _ not _ a date’ but Hyunjin thought otherwise.   
Minho and  Changbin had an odd relationship. There was quite obviously something there. The smiles, the laughter and the sheer happiness that they gave each other was enough to prove that, but nothing seemed to actually be done about it. Not to mention the sexual tension between them that was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Hyunjin was one hundred percent sure things had happened at Chan’s parties before, but neither of the pair had ever explicitly confirmed that.

It was now last period, and Hyunjin had decided that instead of going to his P.E class (because who in the world wants to run about a sports hall in gym shorts), he was going to just roam free.   
Each bang with his fist to every other locker thrilled him, especially when it was particularly strong enough to dent one. He looked down at his boots and realised they were untied. The boy played with the silver ring through the left-side of his lip with his teeth and tongue; mentally scolding himself at the habit he had picked up.   
  
Before he had the chance to look up, his body collided with a firm structure that let out a shrill yelp and he glanced at his arm to see his leather jacket had been splattered with what looked and smelled like coffee; thankfully the fabric so thick he couldn’t feel a thing.   
‘My shoes are still untied’ he thought but his inner monologue was interrupted by a shout.   
Hyunjin looked at the other’s face. The small boy before him was glaring but Hyunjin couldn’t help but notice his cheeks were bright red and unbelievably squishy looking; round glasses sitting askew on his nose. His hair was blonde; obviously dyed but so natural looking; slightly ruffled out of place from the collision.

Hyunjin smirked as he responded, and he continued on his way, resuming his racket.   
It was only when he eventually stopped to tie his thinning laces after doing several laps of the school and going to speak to Minho in his free period, that he noticed he was back outside of the art room.   
Hyunjin didn’t really want to sneak a look in, but the curiosity got the better of him, only to be halted by the outburst of the school bell signalling end of day. He quickly got out of the way and waited for everyone to leave. He spotted Chan’s boyfriend and said a quick hello, the other greeting him with a smile.   


Once the coast was clear, Hyunjin went back to look through the door of the classroom, only to be shocked when he spotted a student still inside. This student being the very same student that had caused the staining to his jacket not an hour before.

Looking closer at the sketching boy, he could work out a faint frown behind the frames of his glasses, which had risen caused by the small scrunch of his nose.

Hyunjin never had an issue with spotting attractive people. They drew him in, much like art you could say, but then  again, the same could be said about Hyunjin. A week didn’t go by when he wasn’t with a supposedly  straight  boy, under the bleachers in the school field. Many people wondered why Hyunjin didn’t get bullied, but the truth was he had way too much dirt on the bullies, much like the knees of his jeans every  thursday afternoon.

So that being said, Hyunjin knew that this art student was attractive. But he’d never seen someone so attractive to the point where he would consider them _beautiful_.

The glasses shaped his rounded face so well; his nose the perfect size; his lips together in a pout of concentration with his bottom lip slightly jutting out as his eyes narrowed to a particular spot on the page.

One hand was being swallowed by the oversized, paint splattered sleeve of his sweater, the other hand forcefully yet somehow still delicately shading one part of the drawing; graphite smudges on the outer side of his palm.

It was only when he saw movement from the teacher in his peripheral vision that Hyunjin managed to tear his attention away from the boy, and slowly backed away from the door and did a 180 to once again stare at the art display. 

He looked at the centre masterpiece and then closer still. 

It had to be that boy’s. Only the recent object of his affections could paint something this magnificent. Hyunjin imagined the concentration on the smaller boy’s face as he added each individual brushstroke. 

A sudden chime of a text tone echoed through the corridor. Hyunjin knew the art student was stood behind him, and that to him confirmed that he was looking at his artwork. He smirked.

Turning on his heel, Hyunjin walked down the corridor and pulled out his phone without sparing a glance to the artist.

**To: lino** 😸

where are u, min? 

Almost immediately, a reply came through.   


**From: lino** 😸

im at home??????? where are u

Hyunjin sighed. 

**To: lino** 😸

u absolute twat  i told u last period id wait after for u!!!! 

see u at home nerd 

He shook his head and made his way to his motorbike that was parked at the back of the car park. He knew he shouldn’t be parking there, no student should be, yet as previously mentioned, detentions did nothing for Hyunjin.

It didn’t take long for him to get himself sorted, climb onto the bike and speed off, but not without making sure that he drove past the art student that he knew had followed him out and smiled when he saw the shocked expression followed by that same faint frown that made his nose scrunch.

He was going to have fun with this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!! thank you so much for the kudos on the 1st chapter! it truly means a lot 🥰
> 
> in regard to the ages,,, basically jisung hyunjin felix and minho are all in the same year and are in the last year of highschool (18) and then chan and changbin are the same age and are in college/uni whatever one works best for you  
essentially those two are older and just arent in the same year  
i swapped minho and changbin round bc it just worked better for this dynamic aka hyunjin and minho living together  
i would do it the same as british schooling but i know thats not familiar to everyone and american schooling that confuses the crap out of me lmao  
seungmin is also 18, woojin is probs chans and changbins age, and then jeongin is baby as always  
OH! and i changed the rating to teen and up bc theres some swearing and implied things as you can see

**Author's Note:**

> hey,, this is my first time writing anything fanfiction related in probably about 5/6(?) years, so please let me know how this is! this is just a test really to see if i still have anything there at all lmao,, and thank you to honor for helping me write this and help put my ideas actually onto paper!


End file.
